


Potato Peels and Yarn

by TinySprite



Category: Dragon Ball, dragon ball z abridged
Genre: Family Fluff, Gen, cute fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-26 06:40:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13852194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TinySprite/pseuds/TinySprite
Summary: Just a cute family fic between Panchy and Future Trunks.





	Potato Peels and Yarn

**Author's Note:**

> Fair warning, there is insinuated rationing and self deprivation of food in here. This also contains hints to some of my own head canons with Panchy, which I may write out in a different fic later.
> 
> Very slight abuse to Vegeta via spicy food.

**Disclaimer:** Dragon Ball Z is owned by Akira Toriyama and Funimation. Only the plot is mine and I make no money from this.

Note: Just something cute I wrote to try and help shake off my writing slump.

Note 2: Technically this is a stand alone but it can be taken as a loose prequel to 'Eggplant'. This is also set in the Abridged universe done by TeamFourStar. Go watch their awesome stuff.

(----)

Panchy noticed it first; the tension in her odd grandson's frame, his fidgeting, and how he was just _looking_ at everything.

She'd heard a bit, about his home in the future; the one that hopefully would not come for them thanks to his and her future daughter's actions. It also made some of his other....little quirks make sense. Like how he ate so little.

Granted, his portions would be fine for a regular human but she'd been feeding Vegeta and had spent years not only helping to feed but she still fed Goku on the odd occasion. Panchy knew by now what full-blooded Saiyans considered proper portions and going from how Gohan ate, half-Saiyans should be similar.

She figured part of it out when Trunks noticed her watching him after one lunch as he took a dull wrapped bar out of a pocket, opened it, and snapped a sectioned third off to eat. Blushing slightly, he raised the bar at her a bit before twisting the wrapping shut to put it away in his pocket again, “Ah, um, ration bar. Mom special made them for me. It...helps.”

Panchy frowned even as she nodded, pursing her lips as old memories suddenly came back to her.

_The hot sun on her back, further burning already blistered skin; her parched throat a constant ache as she worked, sorting supplies and divvying up portions; she made them as equal as she could and would have skimped from her own if she didn't already know there'd be protest._

She frowned and shook her head and squared her shoulders and took the first step, after mentally reminding herself to get in touch with the girls again; the ones she still could find.

Smiling warmly, she looked at Trunks and asked him sweetly, “Can you help me make dinner? It's just peeling potatoes and chopping veggies but..”  
  
Her grandson blinked in odd surprise but nodded, “Uh, sure. I don't mind. I can make rice too, if it helps?”

She hummed happily and agreed, “Ah! That'd help a lot!”

And so started a routine for them; when he had the time, she'd ask him to help her. It wasn't just with cooking, Panchy also took him shopping with her for groceries, for clothes, and just because. It seemed to throw him for quite a loop but he went along with it. This was also how she found he was rather incredibly interested in things and once he was comfortable with it, he began to ask her a lot of questions.

Some would have seen common sense and therefore silly to ask but then again, common sense didn't stay the same when the world went upside down like a kicked ant hill. She'd quite know herself, after all.

….her back stung a bit and felt weighty but she ignored it and answered all his questions.

Once, when they were out grocery shopping at a farmer's market and he was rather down about something Vegeta had apparently said, Panchy saw another opening and took it. She plucked up a rather pale eggplant and held it up to his hair, as if comparing the color. At his confused face, she smiled and asked, “Trunksie, is it okay if I call you Nasu sometimes? It'd be cute!”

Pale blue eyes blinked at her slowly but he eventually nodded and mumbled consent, scratching at an ear as a soft blush hit his face. The owner of the vegetable stall was confused too but took it in stride when she basically bought out all his produce.

She also made sure to put extra spices in the curry that night for dinner. Vegeta's reddening face made it worth the extra milk pitcher she had to put out too; both of which also always seemed to need a refill when he needed a fresh glass. Saiyans might have bottomless and near-unbeatable stomachs, but she'd noticed some preferences and wasn't above getting some minor revenge with it.

The next thing surprised even her.

Trunks had wandered into the living room where she'd been sitting and making a new cuddle blanket to give to Chichi as a baby shower gift. He returned her smile and readily sat next to her and held the yarn as she asked, then he noticed her carefully laid out knitting patterns.

“Grandmother, what are those?” he asked while leaning over to look them over.

She answered easily, “My patterns! See, I had to work out how to make the Son symbol since this blanket is for ChiChi and the new baby. I wanted to make it as a baby blanket but the math didn't work out right so I scaled it up to make a cuddle blanket and it worked!”

Trunks was quiet for a minute and when she looked up, she could see his lips moving idly as he focused on her patterns. Then, a softly asked, “Could I try?”

Panchy blinked, “Oh?”

He went quiet, still holding her yarn carefully, but clarified, “Um...could I try it? I can sew but I've never done knitting before....and I think I've got the math down.”

Panchy considered this, her hands still moving automatically to keep knitting. Then she paused her hands and nodded to the basket by her side, “Go ahead. Feel free to use the yarn and I've got a spare set of needles for you to borrow.”

Carefully setting the yarn down, he did as she allowed and fetched out the needles and for now an orange ball of yarn. She helped him start the first cast and warned him of the tension, then sat back and let him work. He was a little clumsy at first, his roughened hands not use to holding the needles and the yarn caught on his callouses more than once, but he got the rhythm down and set to it.

She relaxed back into the couch and settled back into her own rhythm, more than a little pleased at having helped him find a new hobby. She only had to pause to help him integrate the new yarn color into his developing project but he got the hang of that fast and settled back in again; she had to warn him to slow down too, to help avoid over stretching the yarn or creating a snarl that could destroy hours of work.

Trunks frowned in concentration and nodded, clearly making himself stay at a steady pace as he went on. When they were done, they had two remarkably similar blankets; hers large and his small being the only difference.

Panchy made sure to praise him for it and ask if he'd like to try another pattern. He'd hesitated, then quietly asked if maybe it'd be okay to try the Ox-King's symbol for another baby blanket. She'd immediately gotten her graphing paper out and they set to it to figure out the math for the symbol.

And that seemed to spark something as Trunks soon was asking to help her with more things; instead of just peeling potatoes or chopping vegetables or doing a few side dishes, he asked her how this recipe went or how that dish was made. Panchy was more than happy to teach him, even if it meant she had to almost physically stop him a few times when he tried to multitask too many things at once.

….it made her wonder, briefly, what had happened to her own self in his time, if he didn't already know these things; as he was clearly warming and opening up to her almost like a stranger becoming a friend.

…......

Panchy decided she didn't want to know, not when mention of his home, his _time_ , often brought a pained look to his eyes and an awkward, weak, weary smile if one at all.

So instead she taught him all she could, encouraged him, and did her best to make him feel as comfortable and as loved as she could. It was what she was best at, after all...and it was surprisingly nice to be able to pass her recipes and household tricks down.

Bulma was a genius but....well, she was certainly her father's daughter and the less said about Tights, the better. Panchy was proud of her daughters but...well....they'd pursued their own dreams and careers very well.

And Trunks clearly wanted to learn, so she taught him everything she knew and it led to the pair of them thinking up new things and improvements to her recipes and oh, she was just so happy!

Vegeta made exactly _one_ negative comment about it; they had her special recipe for five alarm chili that night. No more such comments were made again.

 


End file.
